Tracks+-+Studio+Sessions

include component="page" page="content_legendott" wrap="1" code Tracks commercially released: November 9, 1998 / 18 Tracks commercially released: April 12, 1999 1998-99 Producers: Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin 1998-99 Technical Coordinator and Recording engineer: Toby Scott* 1998-99 Mixers: Ed Thacker, Thom Panunzio and Bob Clearmountain* code *see Brucebase session listings for the specific producers and engineers of the original recordings

Part One - Tracks / 18 Tracks Sessions Overview

Following the completion of the solo acoustic //The Ghost Of Tom Joad// tour in May 1997 Springsteen kept a relatively low profile and spent the summer months in New Jersey with his family. He held a studio session in November 1997 (the first of what is now known as the Seeger Sessions) and also participated in songwriting sessions with Joe Grushecky in December 1997-January 1998. According to interview comments by Toby Scott, (Springsteen’s audio archivist and recording engineer), it was in February 1998, during solo sessions being conducted at Bruce’s NJ home studio, that Springsteen approached Scott and said “let's do the boxed set”. Scott then went to work gathering the potential material from Springsteen’s massive audio library (located, along with Sony's sound archives, in the high-tech Iron Mountain facility near Buffalo, NY). Bruce’s NJ home studio (Thrill Hill East) served as the main operational center for all //Tracks// project activities.

Springsteen mentioned in an early 1999 interview with journalist Patrick Humphries that 200 to 300 different songs (twelve to eighteen CDs worth) formed the large pool of recordings that he initially reviewed in the spring of 1998 as potential candidates for the boxed set. Over the course of the next few months the 200-300 was narrowed down. According to Toby Scott by late June then number was down to about 128 songs (eight CDs worth). It was then narrowed down yet again during July to about one hundred songs (a six-CD set). Although these one hundred songs were prepped for the //Tracks// release there was a commercial decision made later in the summer to reduce the size of the release to a four-CD (sixty six-track) package. The package was delivered to Sony in mid-September in order to facilitate the mid-November 1998 release schedule.

The primary intent of //Tracks// (at least insofar as it’s slimmed-down six-CD and four-CD incarnations were concerned) was to cover all of Springsteen's commercially released album sessions. However due to ongoing (and at the time still-unresolved) court proceedings involving most of Springsteen’s unreleased 1972 studio recordings, it was decided not to release any of that in-dispute session material on //Tracks//. Consequently unreleased songs from the Greetings album sessions, or other demo sessions from that period, were not released in the package. The four "Hammond" CBS demo session songs that are found in the box were utilized because that particular studio session and those particular songs were not part of the court proceedings. Postscript: these legal matters were finally resolved, in Springsteen's favour, in 2001 – thereby freeing up these recordings for release at any time. It is likely that a "Tracks, Vol 2" (i.e., another boxed set of similar scope), will be released sometime in the future.

Despite stellar reviews the initial sales of the //Tracks// boxed set were well below expectations, probably due to this pricey retrospective not being issued in the wake of a huge selling Springsteen album (as had been the case in 1986 when //Live 1975-85// followed the //Born In The USA// album). Partly as a consequence of the slow sales it was decided in January 1999 to release an abbreviated single CD version of //Tracks// titled //18 Tracks//. This was intended for the more casual fan, although //18 Tracks// also served the purpose as a promotional tie-in for the E Street Band "Reunion" tour that was announced at the same time. //18 Tracks// contained fifteen recordings already issued on //Tracks//, plus three previously unreleased recordings ("The Fever", "Trouble River" and "The Promise"). Sales of //18 Tracks// were also disappointing, although the Reunion tour that followed was a tremendous commercial success. code Songs marked with # issued on both Tracks and 18 Tracks, ## issued only on 18 Tracks (not on Tracks).

This list corrects the date and location errors found in the Tracks booklet. code

Part Two - Tracks / 18 Tracks Sessions Details

Please go to the specific session era from which these tracks emanate for details on each track.  Part Three - 1993 Tracks concept

At some point in 1993 (presumably following the conclusion of the 1992-93 World Tour) a 25-song archival concept "album" was produced in-house, perhaps to demonstrate the quality of Springsteen's unreleased archive. It's possible that this was an early //Tracks// concept. Twelve of the 25 songs have been subsequently released, either on //Tracks// itself or other projects, ten are known outtakes, two are a mystery, and one is a live cut. Please see the relevant album recording session page for more information on each track.

Notes: Given their placement in the compilation both "Arnie" and "That's Okay" may be outtakes from "The River" sessions, but their absence from the studio logs is peculiar. "Angelyne" was recorded with the E Street Band in February 1980 before being donated in early 1982 to Gary U.S. Bonds.

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